Casino gets 3 preliminary offers for GreenYellow energy business - sources

By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS (Reuters) -French retailer Casino has received three preliminary offers for its renewable-energy business GreenYellow, with bids around 1.5 billion euros ($1.60 billion) each, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

Macquarie I Squared Capital and Dutch company SHV had made preliminary offers as of June 2, one source said, adding that other potential bidders had asked for more time to put together a possible offer.

A second source said the three preliminary offers were likely to be "interesting" for Casino, adding that formal offers could be made before end-July.

BFM TV earlier on Tuesday said GreenYellow had not attracted much interest from potential buyers in the French energy sector, hitting Casino shares in early trade.

They closed down 4.1% at 17.11 euros, having fallen as much as 6% earlier in the day.

Macquarie, I Squared Capital and SHV could not be immediately reached for comment.

Casino, which has embarked on a plan to sell non-core assets to cut debt, said last month that it had launched a process to sell GreenYellow, aiming to seal a potential deal by the end of the year.

GreenYellow, which produces low-cost electricity and helps reduce companies' power consumption, said in February it had raised about 200 million euros to support future growth.

($1 = 0.9350 euros)

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Editing by Silvia Aloisi, Tasilo Hummmel and Jane Merriman)